Okay, I'll come out as a major West Wing lover. I've been an addict since day 1. I agree with the assessment that it got weak for a while, and has come back with vigor. Although I'm uncomfortable with the plotline about Toby and his leak (ripped from the headlines, eh?). It feels like a crumbling house of cards in Bartlett's Whitehouse, and I really hate seeing these long-term close relationships, like between Toby and CJ, falling apart. It's depressing. But I am finding the campaign to be fascinating and thought-provoking.

I did love the debate! I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that they did it twice, though. We here in CA rarely get to actually see live TV actually performed live, because they usually do the live shows on East Coast time, and then televise it later out here. Instead, they actually performed the show twice. I would like to see the other performance and judge which one was better, and how they differed!

Anyway, I thought the debate was fascinating and well performed, if a bit idealistic. Meaning, can any of you imagine two actual candidates behaving as honorably (or effectively!) in that kind of format?? No way!

As for who won, I have to admit that I thought Santos knocked it out of the park. While both did an excellent job in their ability to debate, I thought that Santos kicked Vinick's arse on specific topics more times than the other way round. I can't help but wonder if that's partly because Alan Alda is actually a far-left liberal, trying to make passionate arguments that he doesn't really believe in himself! As an actor, I think he did remarkably well. But it's gotta be hard when you are having to appear that confident and passionate about things that you actually disagree with.